Reflecting on how feminist epistemologies could influence our work as librarians and
archivists brought me back to a particularly resonant moment, when I first met my friend and
feminist scholar-activist Dawn. We exchanged our collections of anarcha-feminist pamphlets
from the 1970s and 80s like precious relics of a bygone era; these documents felt important
because they revealed the possibility of a vibrant and revolutionary feminist movement we did
not see around us. Such documents hold a particular affective power for us, as records of
everyday women’s lives and the grassroots movements they built form only a small portion of the “archival sliver” and can be difficult to trace.1 Standpoint epistemologies are both a methodology and a political strategy, that might serve to hold up documents and information,
like the movement pamphlets I collect, which could inspire feminist struggle.
Sandra G. Harding defines feminist standpoint epistemologies as those which organically stem from the lives, experiences, and struggles of oppressed subjects, position knowledge as inherently socially situated, and privilege the knowledge of the oppressed. Presumably universal positions usually represent white, male, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied viewpoints.2 Knowledge created by or alongside oppressed communities expands our understanding. In her germinal speech Audre Lorde argues that her marginal position, in society and the feminist movement, as a Black lesbian “forged in the crucibles of difference” enables her to envision liberation and methods to achieve “genuine change.”3 Thus, I argue that by centering the knowledge of oppressed communities and embracing difference instead of hiding hegemonic perspectives behind a veneer of objectivity, feminist standpoint epistemology imbues archives and libraries with the potential for information to become a tool for liberation.
Sandra G. Harding defines feminist standpoint epistemologies as those which organically stem from the lives, experiences, and struggles of oppressed subjects, position knowledge as inherently socially situated, and privilege the knowledge of the oppressed. Presumably universal positions usually represent white, male, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied viewpoints.2 Knowledge created by or alongside oppressed communities expands our understanding. In her germinal speech Audre Lorde argues that her marginal position, in society and the feminist movement, as a Black lesbian “forged in the crucibles of difference” enables her to envision liberation and methods to achieve “genuine change.”3 Thus, I argue that by centering the knowledge of oppressed communities and embracing difference instead of hiding hegemonic perspectives behind a veneer of objectivity, feminist standpoint epistemology imbues archives and libraries with the potential for information to become a tool for liberation.
Caswell’s theory of feminist standpoint appraisal corrects the over representation of white male subjects in archives by assigning higher value to the records and histories of oppressed communities.4 Such communities were devalued by traditional theories of appraisal which served to legitimate state power. She provides a genealogy of these theories from Jenkinson and Schellenberg to the more egalitarian Cook and Harris and analyzes each from below, imagining how women, colonized, and working class subjects, and those who occupied more than one of these positions, were erased from the historical record.5 Instead of seeing the positionality of the archivist as an obstacle to neutrality, she argues acknowledging it is the first step towards justice.6
Yet, the principle that anyone can take the perspective of the oppressed can also subsume difference and complicity under another false universal perspective. Caswell follows Black feminist theorists like Patricia Hill Collins by acknowledging that we can embody the standpoint of both oppressed and oppressor, particularly as white women, and must interrogate and theorize from the position of our own complicity, instead of misappropriating the standpoint of the oppressed. 7 Harding admits that feminist movements have a long historical association with racist, bourgeois, heteronormative, and otherwise discriminatory projects.8 As Lorde pointed out, white women must interrogate their own complicity, as they attend feminist conferences while
impoverished women of color perform their housework and care for their children. We must
answer her still urgent question: “What is the theory behind racist feminism?”9 Caswell provides
questions that archivists might use to interrogate these power relations, such as “Is my standpoint
one of oppressed or oppressor in relation to this collection and the community from which
it emerges?” While asking such questions is a first step, Caswell also argues that the profession
must financially and materially reward the visionary work of community-based archives led by people of color.10
Feminist pedagogy also frames personal experiences as knowledge, bringing the emphasis on the personal as political into the classroom. Alongside an emphasis on cooperative learning and critical thinking, a respect for personal experience and affect as knowledge allows students and teachers to build more equitable relationships and learn from each other. Teachers traditionally emphasized this approach in fields like Gender and Sexuality Studies and Ethnic Studies where they could use texts from authors like Angela Davis or Gloria E. Anzaldúa to spark discussion and challenge the hegemonic canon.11 Feminist teachers and library instructors like Maria Accardi and Sharon Ladenson apply this approach to the less obviously political spaces of the library instruction session and the reference desk. Accardi mirrors Caswell’s insistence on her personal stake in archival appraisal by beginning her discussion of feminist pedagogy with personal stories which demonstrate how she brought the insights gained from her positionality as a queer woman to the classroom and the reference desk. Accardi recalls the moment she came out as homosexual to a student whose research question about articles “proving” televised representations of homosexuality had negative consequences was blatantly homophobic. She saw “my coming out to him as a feminist act.”12 It honored her own deeply political position and affective response of shock and distress, instead of “objective” facts.
All of these theorists invoke the political implications of standpoint epistemologies. They
select records or even keywords for instruction sessions based on their potential to spark feminist
movements and the radical imagination. Caswell argues that “Feminist standpoint appraisal does
not start and stop with more representative archives, but explicitly asks about the liberatory
uses of such collections.”13 While factoring use into appraisal decisions may contradict the canon
of appraisal theory, community archives like the ones Caswell mentions may already be
committed to such practices, given their explicitly political missions. Similarly, autonomous
community based libraries like the Feminist Library on Wheels and the Free Black Women’s
Library seek to use their collections to build community and feminist movements. Since 2015, the Free Black Women’s Library has been dedicated to promoting the writings and
perspectives of Black women. Volunteer Cara Elie Taylor told the LA Times that the collective’s
mission reaches beyond “reading stories about Black women,” to attempt to “further the stories
of Black women living now and help them achieve whatever exposure they’re looking for.”14
These approaches take the first step towards envisioning knowledge and memory from the
perspectives of marginalized communities, and with it a more equitable and just future.
1 Harris, “The Archival Sliver,” 64; Cook, “What Is Past Is Prologue,” 18.
2 Harding, The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader, 3.
3 Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” 2.
4 Caswell, “Dusting for Fingerprints | Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies,” 7.
5 Caswell, “Dusting for Fingerprints | Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies,” 15–22.
6 “Dusting for Fingerprints | Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies,” 7.
7 “Dusting for Fingerprints | Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies,” 25,
8 Harding, The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader, 9.
9 Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” 2.
10 “Dusting for Fingerprints | Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies,” 28–29.
11 Ladenson, “Paradigm Shift: Utilizing Critical Feminist Pedagogy in Library Instruction,” 106–7.
12 Accardi, Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction, 12.
13 Caswell, “Dusting for Fingerprints | Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies,” 29.
14 Recinos, “The Free Black Women’s Library Amplifies the Voices of Female African American Writers.”
Caswell, Michelle. “Dusting for Fingerprints | Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies.” Accessed February 10, 2020.
https://journals.litwinbooks.com/index.php/jclis/article/view/113.
Cook, Terry. “What Is Past Is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas since 1898, and the Future
Paradigm Shift.” Archivaria 43 (1997).
Harding, Sandra G. The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political
Controversies. Psychology Press, 2004.
Harris, Verne. “The Archival Sliver: Power, Memory, and Archives in South Africa.” Archival
Science 2, no. 1 (March 1, 2002): 63–86. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02435631. Ladenson, Sharon. “Paradigm Shift: Utilizing Critical Feminist Pedagogy in Library Instruction.”
In Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods., by Maria Accardi, Emily Drabinski, and Alana Kumbier. Duluth: Library Juice Press, 2014. http://qut.eblib.com.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=3328227.
Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press,2007.
Recinos, Eva. “The Free Black Women’s Library Amplifies the Voices of Female African American Writers.” Los Angeles Times (Online), June 28, 2019. https://search.proquest.com/docview/2249046170?accountid=14512.
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